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Tuesday, 10 February 2009

A Camp In The Snow

With deep snow in the woods and on the hills, the local road still icy and no sign of a thaw I decided to make an overnight trip from home and camp out in these unusual conditions. Skiing through the local woods was still difficult due to the soft snow and fallen trees and branches and after an hour I was barely a mile from home. Reaching a road I was surprised to see it had not been ploughed. Skiing down it I reached a barrier of great blocks of snow. This was as far as the snowplough had managed to reach. Leaving the road I skied out of the trees onto open moorland where the snow was a little firmer and progress a little faster. The hills here, in the north-eastern corner of the Cairngorms National Park, are rolling and rounded and covered with heather. Walking away from tracks is arduous due to the thick vegetation. But with snow burying the heather and on skis travel was surprisingly easy and I was soon on the summit of the highest hill in the area Carn na Loine. At just 549 metres (1801 feet) it’s only a small hill. However with snow stretching out in every direction to distant white summits I could easily have been in the Arctic rather than just a few miles from home. The snow was a foot or more deep on the summit and it took a while to create a firm platform for the tent.

That evening a full moon rose in the sky and the temperature plummeted. The hills glowed palely in the moonlight. Down in the glens and straths I could see the orange lights of villages, isolated farmsteads and the bigger, brighter town of Grantown-on-Spey. From up here it all seemed far away and a different world. Camping on a hilltop in the snow, even such a little hill so close to civilisation, had taken me back into a different home, that of wild country and nature.

Overnight the temperature inside the tent dropped to -8°C. Back home my thermometer recorded -15°C while Strathspey Weather said the low was -19.5°C. I didn’t mind the cold. In fact, I relished it, relished the sharp air and the snow, relished the brief return of this little hill to a wild state. Dawn came with a clear sky and a sun with a hint of warmth. The descent from Carn na Loine was on wonderful snow that I swooped down with delight, amazed to discover such conditions up here. Mountain hares started at my approach and raced away across the snow. Soon I was approaching the trees and a sudden slowing of my progress as I hit the deep soft forest snow. But the sun shining through the snow laden trees and the sparkling of shards of snow in the air shaken off the branches by the breeze made the woods magical and beautiful and I didn’t mind the twisting, turning, stumbling skiing as I made my way back home.

25 comments:

looks like that you used the Scarp tent from Henry Shires. Looking forward to a future test report in TGO about it but knowing that you are a longterm Akto user I'm wondering how you would rate the Scarp against it.

I thought the tent might attract attention! When pitched with the cross poles the Scarp 1 is better than the Akto in heavy snow. Last week it was completely buried in heavy snow and stayed up. In the same conditions the ends of the Akto collapse. A full review will appear in TGO.

I used my old Cullman Backpack tripod for the self portrait. I think the Gorillapod would have disappeared in the snow!

Taffy, I bought my tripod sometime in the 90s (so long ago I can't remember exactly when!) from REI in the USA who called it the Backpack Tripod. It weighs 620 grams. Of the current Cullman tripods the Mini-Tripod (CU 1002) looks the most like it.

Hi Chris. I have yet to get my Scarp on a hill. I have found seam sealing it a pain. I love the fast pitch and solid feel it has. Only worry is the gap of the flysheet from the ground level on the porches. Especially the side were you have no pull device to tighten it down. I also think the weight and pack size is stunning vs my Laser or the old Akto.

Martin, I haven't bothered seam sealing the Scarp and it hasn't leaked so far. It's been up in heavy rain for a few nights. The gap between the flysheet and the ground in the porches does make a difference. I usually leave inner doors open unless there are midges about but I closed them at the Carn na Loine camp because the wind was coming in through the gap under the flysheet.

Re:seam-sealing the Scarp 1, the good news is that you can do a poor job, if at all, and it wont matter very much. The "inner" is made of calendered ripstop nylon, a highly water repellent material. Any drips through the seams or splash though the apex vents will just roll off the inner fabric.

Nielsen, I don't know when the review will appear in TGO. Not for a few months yet as I want to test the tent in different conditions. It's a winter tent with the crossing poles but these aren't needed all the time. I haven't decided what to use on the Challenge yet.

Chris, I have two Tarptents I've "winterized, theMoment DW and the Scarp 2. The most important thing I did was run the crossing poles UNDER the fly of each tent, This helps give much more support in high winds and wet, heavy snow load. See photos and details of these mods at Backpacking light forums. "Winter Hiking" forum for theScarp 2 and the "Tarptent Thread" in the Gear forum for the Moment DW.Also another important mod was adding 4 fly hem stake loops to each tent. This nails done the fly in high winds and prevents flapping. BUT also it see[ps snow that slides off the fly and builds up from pushing the flu and tent body inward in heavy snowfalls. This is every bit as important as preventing wind flapping. (Don't ask how I know ;o)

As I test bags I don't really have one winter bag I use all the time. However if I'm not testing one I use either the Rab Infinity 500 (which now has hydrophobic down, my early model doesn't) or the PHD Hispar 400. This is for UK use where nights below -10C are rare. UK winters are quite damp but I've never had problems with down getting wet. Treated down has only been available for a few years so most winter camping has always been done without it. Back in the 1990s I led ski tours in many places including Spitsbergen, Greenland, and the Yukon Territory in temperatures down to -35C. Treated down didn't exist then so everyone used standard down sleeping bags. On these two to three week trips no-one had problems with really wet sleeping bags.

I think treated down is most useful in garments as there's no need to worry about rain or wet snow.